Bathroom Repair Questions..need suggestions....

[BigWadeS]

I am in need of some advice on a home repair problem I have. Our basement bathroom (3/4) has the sink, toilet, shower. The wall the shower is on the opposite side is out living room. I have been noticing a dampness on the carpet, so I have pulled out all the caulking and recaulked the shower, the shower drain, and still noticing it. Then today I have attempted to replace the wax ring on the toilet and reset it. The problem is I can't seem to get a good seal on the toilet to the floor could this cause the water running under the floor and getting all the way through to that wall? So in my mind I have three options:

1) If so do I need to use a pry bar and get the plumbing collar out and replace that and then reset the toilet for a tighter fit?

2) Totally redue my shower and tiling or maybe recaulk again?

3) Call a plumber and shell out $$$$$ to find out where the water is coming from

Any thoughts or suggestions or previous similar experiences?

[Stratosman]

So you don't know if it's the shower or the toilet....if it's a tile shower pan that certainly could be leaking, get a balloon and blow it up a bit larger than the drain, take the strainer off and shove it down the drain to form a tight seal, make sure you get beneath the weep holes of the drain assembly...fill with water to about one inch or so up the wall, mark line and check in the morning...if it's down, you have a leak, some wetter carpet as well. Then you need to start over with a fresh correctly installed shower...if not, then you can eliminate that as a source.

As far as the toilet...what do you mean by a tighter fit...do you mean it's not seating onto the wax like it should? If that's the case, get one reinforced large wax ring and then a second bol wax and then set the toilet, the extra wax will form a tight seal. If it's the flange, you might need a flange repair kit, basically set on top of the existing and attached to the floor. If you think you can remove the existing flange, then, yes get a new one and attach properly.

What is the flooring on the bath floor? If it's a hard surface or a resiliant, like tile, vinyl, ect. And it's on concrete, you would notice water near the toilet before on the carpet of the adjacent room.

My primary focus is always on the tile shower, those guys can cause alot of problems...I have tore out and replaced many many a bad shower and no matter how much caulking you do, it won't fix the problem either, water goes through grout joints like it's not even there.

No need to call a plumber yet, do a test on the shower pan first to either eliminate that or to isolate that as your problem...

If you have any other questions feel free to ask on here or you can e-mail me as well. jsmamer at embarq mail dot com

good luck!